Electronic patient records (EPRs) play a crucial role in supporting and linking virtual wards by enabling seamless data sharing, enhancing clinical decision-making and ensuring patients receive coordinated care across settings. As NHS England releases the latest virtual ward figures for December 2024[1], it’s clear that digital infrastructure is key to scaling these services effectively.

In this blog, we explore how robust EPR solutions help integrate virtual wards within the wider healthcare system, improve patient flow and drive efficiency, supporting the NHS in meeting its long-term targets for the expansion of virtual care.

What are virtual wards?

Virtual wards act like a hospital at home. Patients can be physically discharged to their home environment, but their care and clinical responsibility remains with the hospital until clinical discharge. This is reducing length of stay, freeing up hospital beds and improving the patient experience. In some cases, virtual wards also offer an alternative for unwell patients in the community and require treatment and clinical supervision. Prior, they would have been admitted to hospital via emergency care.  Virtual wards provide the framework for ongoing, safe medical treatment and supervision but also enable patients to receive this is in the comfort and safety of their own homes.

Virtual wards help reduce the downside of extended hospital admissions, such as hospital-acquired infections and other complications related to reduced activity. Virtual wards have been around for some time but historically have been focused on specific conditions, such as infective exacerbation of COPD or heart failure. The experience of managing patients from afar during the pandemic, coupled with both clinicians’ and patients’ adoption and acceptance of technology, has enabled acceleration of the virtual ward concept for both accelerated discharges following elective procedures as well as supported discharge following emergency admissions.

Where EPRs come into play

The integration of Electronic Patient Records (EPR) is crucial for delivering continuity of care for patients in virtual wards. EPRs provide comprehensive clinical data, supporting patient assessment and ensuring consistent protocolised management across care settings. This integration enables healthcare professionals to monitor patient progress effectively and make informed decisions. This also facilitates safer handover care between clinicians. For example, if patients are discharged to a virtual ward or if they do require emergency inpatient admission from a virtual ward. These benefits and the use of consistent documentation within the EPR across these care settings have aided the speed with which virtual ward services can establish their protocols and procedures. In addition, they support efficient, routine ongoing assessment of patients. The ability to view baseline functionality both in physiological parameters and in activities of daily living ensures any deviation from expected progress is easier to spot.

The use of existing EPR technology to support the virtual ward initiative will be key to successful implementation, supporting the reduction in length of stay and avoidance of admission or re-admission.

Virtual wards in action

At Wrightington Wigan and Leigh NHS Trust, the range of conditions supported by virtual ward care continues to expand, adding a much-needed contribution to the mitigation of the bed crisis affecting all acute hospitals.

At East Kent University Hospitals NHS Trust, the continuity of clinical data within the EPR has been further enhanced by the integration of remote vital signs monitoring of virtual ward patients through integration of regularly measured physiological parameters directly into Sunrise EPR. This saves manual transcription of these data points from third-party, remote home-monitoring devices into Sunrise and enables hospital-based clinicians to monitor their virtual ward patients and identify any worrying deterioration without logging into a standalone platform. It also ensures this remotely acquired data is retained in the patient record and is available to provide a holistic overview of the patient and any exacerbations of their condition at subsequent hospital attendances.

Innovative care models

Virtual wards demonstrate NHS England’s dedication to innovative care models that improve patient experience while easing hospital pressures. By harnessing technology and integrated care, they mark a major step forward in delivering more accessible, patient-centred healthcare in an optimal environment.

The use of existing EPR technology to support the virtual ward initiative will be key to successful implementation, supporting the reduction in length of stay and avoidance of admission or re-admission. The single repository for clinical data will also enable analysis of the patient cohorts benefitting from this service so that it can be further optimised for safety and efficiency and expanded to a wider range of eligible conditions and needs.

[1] 2023/24 Priorities and Operational Planning Guidance and the Delivery Plan for Recovering Urgent and Emergency Care